The Global Startup Movement - Startup Ecosystem Leaders, Global Entrepreneurship, and Emerging Market Innovation

Part 1 of a 2 part miniseries on the topic of innovation in infrastructure in emerging economies. As a result of the twin crises in public health and the global economy, inequities in the current economic paradigm have been laid bare, as have debilitating weaknesses in global supply chains delivering critical goods.

Decisions made today shape the built environment of tomorrow. The continent with the fastest growing economy today is Africa, and this will continue to increase. This week's speakers will shine a light on the African continent, share a diversity of perspectives and challenges from the private and public sector, and offer solutions for sustainable, equitable infrastructure development in the 21st century.

On this episode you'll learn:

1. How can hemp serve as a key input into Africa's growing construction and textile industries? [7:30]

2. How can Africa accelerate the velocity of capital accessible to local entrepreneurs? [11:50]

3. What incentives do African banks have that disincentives them from giving SMEs and entrepreneurs loans [21:15]

Franco Goytia is a serial entrepreneur; currently the CEO of Caspr Biotech, a startup he co-founded at the age of 23. Caspr is using Crispr technology to make better and more accessible molecular diagnostics solutions.

Prior to this, at the age of 21, he founded Ando a B2B last-mile logistics solution in LATAM. He did this while studying Economics at Universidad de San Andres in Argentina. Ando was acquired by Moova in 2018. Some of his notable achievements include being selected for the US Dept. State Young Leaders Initiative (YLAI), being an alumni from the Westerwelle Foundation as a Young Founders and having participated of the Indie Bio acceleration program for biotech entrepreneurs in SF.

On this episode you'll learn:

What is CRISPR and what can it do? [2:20]

How has the COVID-19 fallout affected the Buenos Aires startup ecosystem? [14:00]

How was CASPR originally using CRISPR to combate the Zika Virus?[18:15]

Akin Sawyerr is the Strategy lead for Decred, where he leads strategy and governance functions, and supports the proliferation of Decred across Africa. Decred is an open and progressive cryptocurrency with an system of community-based governance integrated into its blockchain. He's also an early investor and director of Splash Mobile Money, the largest mobile payments company in Sierra Leone. Akin is a long time executive and entrepreneur operating in mobile money, remittances, and payments in sub Saharan Africa.

On this episode you'll learn:

What use cases within Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is Akin most excited for and why? [3:20]

What aspect of DeFi does Akin think will have the biggest impact across Africa? [10:48]

What are the best assets to peg a stablecoin's value to?[14:05]

Ian Hathaway is co-author of the new book The Startup Community Way, on entrepreneurial ecosystems published in July 2020 and has published for prominent research institutions, universities, businesses, and periodicals. He is a frequent contributor for outlets such as the Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal.

Currently, he leads product development for ecosystem advisory at Techstars, where he works with entrepreneurs and community leaders around the world to support their path towards building better ecosystems. Ian is a startup advisor, mentor, and investor, including at The Fund. He is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, co-founder and board member at the Center for American Entrepreneurship, and a research fellow at Boston University.

On this episode you'll learn:

How do think tanks affect policy on entrepreneurship and venture capital [5:39]

How did Ian end up co-authoring The Startup Community Way with Brad Feld? [14:35]

Has COVID-19 accelerated Ian's thesis on startup ecosystem development or has it altered his framework? [21:12]

Bill Ottman is an American Internet entrepreneur and freedom of information activist based in New York City best known as the CEO and co-founder of Minds. Minds is a free and open source distributed social networking service that uses the blockchain to reward the community with ERC20 tokens.

On this episode you'll learn:

A comparison between the geopolitical implications of Google investing large amounts in a country versus Huawei investing [7:01]

How did India's banning of Chinese apps affect consumer behavior of the average Indian? [15:20]

Why data privacy issues can have serious geopolitical consequences[21:12]

Host Andrew Berkowitz breaks down the recent drama surrounding the rapid rise and fall of Chinese coffee startup Luckin Coffee from it's founding 3.5 years ago through it's widely successful IPO and eventual collapse on April 2, 2020 when Luckin disclosed that an internal probe found that its chief operating officer had fabricated 2019 sales by about 2.2 billion yuan ($310 million). Additionally, Andrew discusses the next in line to become Asia's coffee unicorn and most serious competitor to Starbucks in the region, Indonesia's Kopi Kenangan.

On this episode you'll learn:

Luckin Coffee's initial rapid growth and expansion throughout Middle East and Asia [2:00]

What were the fraud allegations made by Muddy Waters Research again Luckin?[3:59]

Who is Asia's next coffee startup most likely to become a regional powerhouse and compete with Starbucks?[9:55]

Ashish Singal is the Founder and CEO at CoinSwitch.co and Sequoia-backed CRUXPay, an open protocol simplifying the way people use crypto. It enables users to create a human readable CRUX ID which can be used to send and receive payment request, connect to dApps with a single click while ensuring an experience matching that of online fiat payments platforms like Paypal/Venmo or ApplePay. Ashish is a former Amazon developer and a leader of the team that built Amazon Prime's 1-hour delivery model. Ashish is a well-known figure in India's cryptocurrency space and an expert on the issue of the cryptocurrency ban in India.

On this episode you'll learn:

1. What was the effect of India's Supreme Court reserving their ban on crypto trading in March of this year? [4:22]

2. What's been the relationship dynamic between India's cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and regulators? [9:00]

3. Where are the different cryptocurrency startup hubs emerging in India? [14:10]

In part 2 of our podcast mini-series we look at the investor perspective of the current state of the global seed and growth stage investing environment. Our 2 guests today include Sean O'Sullivan the Managing General Partner at SOSV, a global venture capital firm providing multi-stage investment and investing in 150 companies, and Tien Wong CEO at Opus 8, where he provides strategy and fundraising advice to technology companies and investors. Opus8 organizes tech networking events as well as fundraising missions for private equity and VC firms to meet overseas LPs.

On this episode you'll learn:

How Sean has adapted his global vc and accelerator programs and how to think about approaching the post COVID-19 era - [6:01]

The difference between navigating market down turns as an entrepreneurs with a company of 15 vs as an executive with a company of 2300 employees - [13:26]

How this is affecting startup valuations and deal flow in the United States - [16:05]

In part 1 of our 2 part mini-series we dive into 3 different sectors ranging from delivery startups to CRISPR-based diagnostics as well as 3 geographies including Pakistan, Sierra Leone, and Argentina. Our 3 guests today include Syed Sair Ali, Cofounder and CEO at Lahore, Pakistan based Eat Mubarak, Jurgen Descamps, the General Manager for Securiport based in Sierra Leone, as well as Franco Goytia, cofounder at CASPR Biotech based in Buenos Aires, Argentia and Silicon Valley.

On this episode you'll learn:

How delivery startups in emerging economies are being affected by COVID-19 - [6:38]

How Sierra Leone's experience with Ebola helped shape it's response to COVID-19 - [8:45]

How has COVID-19 affected the Buenos Aires Startup Ecosystem - [20:05]

In part 1 of our 2 part mini-series we dive into 3 different sectors ranging from delivery startups to CRISPR-based diagnostics as well as 3 geographies including Pakistan, Sierra Leone, and Argentina. Our 3 guests today include Syed Sair Ali, Cofounder and CEO at Lahore, Pakistan based Eat Mubarak, Jurgen Descamps, the General Manager for Securiport based in Sierra Leone, as well as Franco Goytia, cofounder at CASPR Biotech based in Buenos Aires, Argentia and Silicon Valley.

On this episode you'll learn:

How delivery startups in emerging economies are being affected by COVID-19 - [6:38]

How Sierra Leone's experience with Ebola helped shape it's response to COVID-19 - [8:45]

How has COVID-19 affected the Buenos Aires Startup Ecosystem - [20:05]